Rainbow Vegetable Soup (Cai Hong Tang)

Why people make this soup

The idea behind rainbow eating is simple: different colours of vegetables and legumes bring different nutrients and different traditional benefits. Fresh green olives are a versatile seasonal ingredient — they pair beautifully with monk fruit for a throat-soothing drink, with green radish and almonds for another style of soup, and here they anchor a cheerful rainbow broth. When you put all five colours together, you get a soup that’s as nourishing to look at as it is to drink.

Method

1. Rinse and lightly crush the green olives with the flat of a knife so the flavour can release into the soup.
2. Peel and cut the Chinese yam and carrot into rough chunks.
3. Halve the dried figs.
4. Rinse and briefly soak the black beans.
5. Place all ingredients into a pot with 2.4 L of water.
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours until it reduces to 1.2–1.5 L.
7. Serve; eat the solid ingredients along with the broth. Lean pork can be added if desired — simply increase the cooking time to 1 hour.

Nourilo’s Tips

This soup has a wonderful natural sweetness from the figs and carrot. It clears heat, soothes the throat, and is particularly good for anyone who loves seafood — green olives are traditionally considered an antidote to fish and crab toxins. If you cannot find black beans with a green kernel, regular black beans work perfectly well.